Helping Baby Boomers to continue to earn income, as long as they want

The Law

08/12/2017

But it has crossed the line in the life of television programming when a television series begins to lose its audience. And rankings go downward. If the Reagan family is determined to be around for a 9th season, the scripting will have to become more provocative. More of the same won't hold us.

Many know that Tolstoy observation that all happy families are alike. He might have added that, essentially, they are also boring. In college, I would sleep-walk weekends with some of those Roman Catholic happy families in western Pennsylvania. It was hard work to pretend to appreciate their values. My Dickensian family in Jersey City, New Jersey, was so much more interesting.

So, it would be in their ratings self-interest for the powers that be at "Blue Bloods" to introduce severe dysfunction in the extended Reagan family.

For example, Danny's wife Linda could begin a consuming affair with a medical doctor at the hospital where she works. He wants to marry her. She demands a divorce. Yes, she will give up custody of the two sons. The Reagan clan is rocked. There is an empty seat at the Sunday dinners. Frank's wisdom doesn't cut it.

Son Jamie could also confide to Erin that he is gay. He knew that since law school. Not only is he considering outing himself to the family. He is determined to leave the police department to join a gay advocacy organization as a lawyer.

Happy is not a brisk seller on television. Right now, those characters who succeed are troubled or worse - criminal. Tony Soprano began that trend of having us bond with the anti-hero. "Game of Thrones" has been saluted globally for its complex characters. Members of the Reagan family have to grow some edge.

08/10/2017

This is no surprise - at least to myriad females who struggled or are struggling to climb the ladder in their professional services firm.

On Abovethelaw, lawyer-journalist Kathryn Rubino recounts the situation in which a female lawyer asked the powers that be what more she needed to do to make partner. Despite praise from clients, she had been passed over for partnership. This true story originally appeared on Slate. Rubino elaborates on how the world really works.

SMILE MORE. That is what the female lawyer was instructed. In addition, she was mandated to do many more social events. She had already been a regular at most of them. Meanwhile she was approaching burnout from the 70+ hour weeks, the socializing, taking care of herself and being there for her family.

Yet, male partners often tell us that early in the game they are tutored to wear a poker face. One actually told me, "My persona is monkish." He does smile a little during developing new business. But not too much. After all, smiling is a defensive gesture.

This female hoping for upward mobility in a male-dominated industry is not alone. And her saga is not new.

In the mid 1970s I interviewed for an administrative position in academia. Bluntly, the interviewer asked me, "Why aren't you smiling?"

At the end of the 1970s, when I was employed full time in public affairs at a major energy company, at my official performance review, I was told to "laugh less."

It was only when I hung out a shingle at the end of the 1980s that I no longer had to compulsively monitor my persona to ensure that it aligned with what male professionals demanded.

When I went to call on prospects, I wore a good suit, carried an expensive attache case and smiled at the beginning and end of the presentation. Until the Crash in my niche at the turn of the century, I had been wildly successful.

Currently as the economy improves, I have returned to extreme success. Since 98% of my assignments are remote, there is no need to smile. Or even, as they say in the hospitality industry, put a smile in my voice.

08/09/2017

"You took the leap out of New York careerist addiction into a five-day detox traveling across the country. Southwestern Arizona was your halfway house. For three years. Now, Eastern Ohio is your three-quarter house."

Then she gave me that knowing smug smile radiated by those in 12-step programs. She added:

"Soon enough you will be in a 'whole' house, if you want that."

Indeed, the lexicon for the language of addiction and recovery includes phrases like "having to want 'it'" and more.

Not that this compressing a life into the parameters of addiction is anything new.

Way back in the days when the best and brightest chose graduate school versus jobs, classmates in all sorts of programs confessed addictive tendencies. That was the late 1960s.

Well, the addictions were mighty tame. They ranged from chocolate, especially before tests, to too much television viewing (we were Baby Boomers and that was our medium.)

But as 12-step programs caught fire so did framing whatever in terms of a dark disease. With the opioid crisis, there's no exit from that linguistic simplification. It is assumed: Everyone is addicted to something or someone. And that everyone must be cured.

A lawyer out to create a brandname might put together a class action lawsuit. The plaintiff class, of which I would be a member, could contend that superimposing the categories of addictions on us has become a public nuisance.

The lawsuit can seek injunction relief. The language of addiction would be banned outside of formal medical treatment. Nonono, I don't want to hear how you can't stop snorting carbs. Post-litigation, there will be none of that.

08/03/2017

That's how Linda Tripp-Rousch describes the former BFF she ratted out.

The term is a throwback to the days when the right assumed they dominated cultural values.

Years ago, I ghostwrote articles for a conservative who not only leveraged that phrase. In-person he would refer to the then-current mores as a "cesspool." Internally, I rolled my eyes. Even then, it all seemed pretty white-old-man.

Now, of course, the right has become clown alley. Their talk on values triggers amusement.

The two women - one right, one left - are back on the radar because Amazon Studios is doing a film titled "Linda and Monica." Here are the details from the New York Post.

One wonders, though, if there is a market for such a movie?

Do we really care much any more about the Clinton Dynasty?

In addition, it is old stuff that Bill Clinton was an alleged womanizer. When conseravatie Matt Drudge first broke The Intern Story it was of great interest. The right ran with it. A good times was had by all, except Clinton who made a fool of himself doing lawyertalk about not having "'sex' with that woman."

Now we are only all ears about who will be booted next from the White House. President Donald Trump will be vacationing this month. Watchers predict that will give him the time to reflect carefully on doing a clean sweep of staff.

07/31/2017

Well, "Sunday Night," hosted by Megyn Kelly, came back from the dead last night.

It frontloaded a feature on the incredible shrinking airline seat. I thought that was old news. But viewers were interested enough to stick with the rest of the show.

The stickiness gave "Sunday Night" time to live one more hour before being cancelled after only being on-the-air eight times. The original plan was for 10 times.

Kelly claims she will be back. That optimistic spin has characterized this disappointment. Kelly was supposed to be such a catch for NBC.

The bounce last night was to 3.51 million viewers. That puts it back where it had been on June 18. A week before, the ratings cratered to 2.85 million. That was partly because it had been knocked out of its usual 7:00 P.M. slot. The NASCAR race was featured.

Now it's onto the 9:00 A.M. slot for Kelly. Her "Megyn Kelly Today" will be done before a live audience.

Calling the show that was probably a mistake. The stench from the rotting branding of "Sunday Night" could drift into "Today." If the ratings are lousy, expect heads to roll. Among them could be Kelly's. She will be bought out of her contract or perhaps parachuted in to do interviews of celebrities arriving on some red carpet somewhere.

Sad to think about, isn't it.

We also have to recall that other Fox refugee from the Roger Ailes era - legal commentator Greta Van Susteren. She didn't last long at MSNBC. Yes, she got the boot.

Ailes had created a unique media environment at Fox News. Many such as Kelly and Van Susteren thrived in it.

So did consultants such as Bob Dilenschneider who had been Ailes' personal public relations representative. They looked a bit like twins separated at birth.

One wonders if Dilenschneider was also a "Friend of Roger." Those on that buddy list received a nice stipend every month from Fox News.

But everything changes.

Fox News seems distracted by the fallout after the House of Ailes collapsed.

I don't read much in the media about Dilenschneider.

That lost generation, of course, seems to also include Kelly and Van Susteren.

Reflection: Kelly has a law degree. She may have the option of returning to being an associate at Jones Day law firm.

07/24/2017

With both political parties in chaos, Cory Booker may sense that there is space for a fresh leader to emerge. Currently Booker sounds, looks and stands like exactly that.

His signature issue has been antitrust law directed at the titans of Silicon Valley. He perceives them as sowing the seeds of more income inequality in America. Here is the coverage in Recode.

Booker can pull off just about anything he wants. He not only has the New Jersey raw drive. He has the imagination - which most politicos lack. Some of us remember how he attempted to exist on what the very poor have in their budget for food.

In addition, the antitrust issue, as applied to tech, resonates. We are becoming weary of tech taking over just about every aspect of our little lives. And forget the dream of ever being able to live in San Francisco. Tech has made that too expensive.

07/23/2017

Those engineering revolutions, at least successful ones, understand that. They hold off the big bangs until the situation is bad enough to elicit communal push-back.

That tipping point has come in the anti-Trump mass movement. It is now, yes, a revolution.

In this digital era, the old-line theatre in the street has migrated to screens. This Tuesday, Donald Trump is visiting here in the Youngstown, Ohio Metro area. Instead of disrupting in-person with an out of the box stage presence, my influence will have greater reach with tweeting and blogging.

As in all revolutions, in the anti-Trump one brandnames will be made. Has-beens will experience giant comebacks.

Baby Boomers weren't around for the American Revolution, of course. But we had the youthful energy to be totally a part of the Counterculture. For me it happened at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor campus, where I had been pursuing excellence in literature and linguistics. End of that story.

Once no-name Jerry Rubin became the name. Even I, low-level player, had my photo featured in retail along a second-tier street in that university town. My hair was down to my waist. My face was angry. (One takeaway from that time, which lawyers with poker faces have down cold, is that smiling is a defensive tactics. Not-smiling brings the unique edge.)

Professors who hadn't been appointed full professors at the University of Michigan (death in the academic community) had access to a second life. They took on the mantle of radical politics. Some went on to become speechwriters for liberal politicos. All seemed to have re-gained a sense of self.

Similar dynamics are happening now, of course.

Invisible lawyers who had labored in the vineyard monkishly are putting together an identity on social media. That can open new kinds of career-oriented doors.

Those who already have a brandname in legal journalism, such as Abovethelaw.com's Joe Patrice, have become must-reads. His first career path had been in BigLaw. More and more of the anti-Trump initiatives are associated with the law.

Those who had faded from the political scene, like Jeb Bush, are back. Depending on how they configure this return to a higher profile, they could get their ticket punched in amazing ways.

Meanwhile, the former conservative digital news site Drudge Report keeps upping its influence - and page views. That's by an OCD approach to curating the revolution.

It's funny: Matt Drudge started out as Trumpism cheerleader. He was really waving those pom-poms during Campaign 2016. Even conducted polls during the debates as to the winner. Of course, The Donald always came up on top in those.

History might remember the Drudge Report as the analogue of Rolling Stone for the anti-Trump upheaval.

Patrice could have a talk show.

Bush could run for leader of the not-so-free world in 2020.

Me? This weekend I had an inquiry to fly out-of-town and audition for a book ghostwriting opportunity.

Reflection: Revolutions, like shoot-em-up wars, are platforms for professional upward mobility.

07/19/2017

All have blocking/delete features. Because they do, we need fewer $150 sessions with our executive or even our life coach.

Before technology facilitated establishing boundaries, I might have felt compelled to analyze with a coach what seemed to be a red flag in a business relationship and we assess options for how to manage it. Now, there are technical solutions.

Here's an example. A prospect for our services has demanded a free review of the organization's website. We know where that is going: A brain pick. A civil email or LinkedIn message is transmitted. It states there doesn't seem to be a good fit. Then all points of contact are blocked. End of story.

Sure, there can be and are stealth attempts for the prospect to make one more try.

Among them are those no-trace cell phones or creating another email address. So? We then just do what most local police departments instruct us to do. We tell the miscreant that this conversation is a formal notice that harassment charges will be filed if there are any future communication. Yes, we have to make it explicit that, no, we do not want to hear from them again, not through any medium.

Do we still churn inside about "what nerve XYZ had in that request?" We can get the hang of stopping that.

Several weeks ago I did pony up the $150 to have the coach lead me through the thought processes of positioning and packaging those annoyances as a "so what." The mantra is: Suck it up. That's just part of business in these strange times.

They sacrifice personal relationships and actually put their lives on the line to catch the bad guys.

Sure, they have flaws. For instance, Dr. Spencer Reid is low in Emotional Intelligence (EI). But, overall, they represent the best of the human species.

That's the fiction.

The reality is that those in the FBI are all too human, including in the ambition department.

That is recounted in the classic about notorious criminal Whitey Bulger. The book is "Black Mass." Written by Dick Lehr and Gerald O'Neill, it captures an ethos is which strategies and tactics are heavy with FBI personal self interest.

For example, FBI agent John Connolly ups his status by bagging Bulger as a confidential informant. That transaction is not a "pure" one. Not long after Bulger agreed to be a snitch, he committed his first murder. Cooperating with the FBI didn't transform the miscreant into a player who respected the norms of society.

Of course, if ambition results in the overall greater good it's okay, right. More scum gets collared. The world is a bit safer.

But ambition can also open the door to over-zealous pursuit of supposed law and order. Currently, the convictions of former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara have been questioned. Some, such of inside traders and Sheldon Silver, have been tossed.

But all this is well known to any 1L. From the get-go in law school the message is: The game is about winning. That's positioned and packaged as pulling out all stops to represent one's client.

Can human beings in law enforcement and prosecution/defense become more tuned in to old-fashioned tenets of what constitutes "character?" In my personal essay for college back in early 1960s, I had to discuss issues relating the character. At the time, I believed those were important. Now? I just don't know.

07/17/2017

But "serious people" weren't allowed to take popular culture seriously.

Those "serious people" included college students in Humanities courses, doctoral students writing dissertations, executives in corporations making speeches and publishing books and lawyers arguing cases in court.

That was then. Actually it wasn't so long ago.

In the early 1980s, scholar Stuart Hall introduced the subject of popular culture in a lecture at the University of Illinois. In The New Yorker, Hua Hsu chronicles that revolution. Essentially it entailed pop culture's being classified and treated as "culture." Hall's lecture opened the door to "cultural studies."

The front lines of that disruption were scholars whose backgrounds were blue collar. They recognized that what they had experienced growing up was indeed culture.

Now, college students take courses studying the aggregate pop culture or bits and pieces such as how women are portrayed in the mass media.

Sure, there are doctoral dissertations on such matters, which at one time weren't considered worth scholarly investigation.

The speeches and articles we wrote for Lee Iacocca during the Chrysler turnaround were jam packed with pop culture references. In addition, Iacocca was the first corporate leader to use the language of the street, such as "coulda" and "shoulda."

And, even judges use pop culture to make a point in their written opinions. Here, Kathryn Rubino at Abovethelaw.com describes how Ninth Circuit Judge John Owens leveraged a reference to "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That was in his concurrence for the case of "U.S. v. Perez-Silvan."

Is the current challenge for Millennials and Gen Zers to experience and appreciate what used to be classified as "high culture?"

My Millennial clients have neither read nor seen a play by William Shakespeare. To fulfill "that kind of requirement" in college they took an American Studies or Womens Studies course.

No Bach or Beethoven comes through their doors or windows in this 400-unit complex.

Unless they had gone to art school, many have developed no interest in the visual art movements over the centuries.

I wonder, though: Had I not invested so many years in academia involved in the study of English Literature and the History of Ideas, would I even care about those artifacts of so-called high culture?

I have a hunch the answer is "no." The characters in "Criminal Minds" and in the film "Manchester By the Sea" are the entities which help me interpret my little world.